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Detailed and fast combustion models are necessary to support design of Diesel engines with low emission and fuel consumption. Over the years, the importance of turbulence chemistry interaction to correctly describe the diffusion flame structure was demonstrated by a detailed assessment with optical data from constant-volume vessel experiments. The main objective of this work is to carry out an extensive validation of two different combustion models which are suitable for the simulation of Diesel engine combustion. The first one is the Representative Interactive Flamelet model (RIF) employing direct chemistry integration. A single flamelet formulation is generally used to reduce the computational time but this aspect limits the capability to reproduce the flame stabilization process. To overcome such limitation, a second model called tabulated flamelet progress variable (TFPV) is tested in this work.

In future decarbonized scenarios, hydrogen is widely considered as one of the best alternative fuels for internal combustion engines, allowing to achieve zero CO2 emissions at the tailpipe. However, NOx emissions represent the predominant pollutants and their production has to be controlled. In this work different strategies for the control and abatement of pollutant emissions on a H2-fueled high-performance V8 twin turbo 3.9L IC engine are tested. The characterization of pollutant production on a single-cylinder configuration is carried out by means of the 1D code Gasdyn, considering lean and homogeneous conditions. The NOx are extremely low in lean conditions with respect to the emissions legislation limits, while the maximum mass flow rate remains below the turbocharger technical constraint limit at λ=1 only.

In the paper some methods are presented, with the corresponding practical examples, related to MonteCarlo (MC) techniques for thermal model/test correlation purposes. The MonteCarlo techniques applied to model correlation are intended to be used as an alternative to empirical ‘manual’ correlation techniques, gradients methods, matrix methods based on least square fit minimization. First of all, Design Of Experiments (DoE) tools are used to determine the model response to uncertain parameters and the confidence level of such a response. A sensitivity map is built, allowing the design of the test to maximize the response of the system to the uncertain parameters. Techniques derived from the extreme statistics are used to extrapolate data beyond test limits, with a sufficient confidence in the queue behaviour.

The paper is focused on both the subjective and the objective ride comfort evaluation of farm tractors. The experimental measurement of the relevant accelerations occurring at the tractor body, at the cabin and at the seat was performed on a number of different farm tractors. A subjective rating of the ride comfort level was performed by considering five different drivers. The comfort index was computed according with ISO 2631 and other standards. The acceleration of the seated subject was computed by means of a proper mechanical model of a farm tractor and derived at different positions on the subject body. It turned out that the acceleration of the lower torso was particularly relevant for establishing a matching between the subjective perception and the objective measurement and computation. A number of indices have been derived from the measured data which are able to correlate the subjective driver feeling with the measured accelerations.

Ammonia/urea-SCR is a mature technology, applied worldwide for the control of NOx emissions in combustion exhausts from thermal power plants, cogeneration units, incinerators and stationary diesel engines and more recently also from mobile sources. However a greater DeNOx activity at low temperatures is desired in order to meet more and more restrictive legislations. In this paper we report transient and steady state data collected over commercial Fe-ZSM-5 and V₂O₅-WO₃/TiO₂ catalysts showing high NOx reduction efficiencies in the 200 - 350°C T-range when NO and ammonia react with nitrates, e.g., in the form of an aqueous solution of ammonium nitrate. Under such conditions a new reaction occurs, the so-called "Enhanced SCR" reaction, 2 NH₃ + 2 NO + NH₄NO₃ → 3 N₂ + 5 H₂O.

Detailed chemistry represents a fundamental pre-requisite for a realistic simulation of combustion process in Diesel engines to properly reproduce ignition delay and flame structure (lift-off and soot precursors) in a wide range of operating conditions. In this work, the authors developed reduced mechanisms for n-dodecane starting from the comprehensive kinetic mechanism developed at Politecnico di Milano, well validated and tested in a wide range of operating conditions [1]. An algorithm combining Sensitivity and Flux Analysis was employed for the present skeletal reduction. The size of the mechanisms can be limited to less than 100 species and incorporates the most important details of low-temperature kinetics for a proper prediction of the ignition delay. Furthermore, the high-temperature chemistry is also properly described both in terms of reactivity and species formation, including unsaturated compounds such as acetylene, whose concentration controls soot formation.

A wheel able to measure the generalized forces at the hub of a race motorcycle has been developed and used. The wheel has a very limited mass. It is made from magnesium with a special structure to sense the forces and provide the required level of stiffness. The wheel has been tested both indoor for preliminary approval and on the track. The three forces and the three moments acting at the hub can be measured with a resolution of 1N and 0.3Nm respectively. A specifically programmed DSP (Digital Signal Processor) embedded in the sensor allows real-time acquisition and processing of the six signals of forces/torques components. The signals are sent via Bluetooth to an onboard receiver connected to the vehicle CAN (Controller Area Network) bus. Each signal is sampled at 200Hz. The wheel can be used to derive the actual tyre characteristics or to record the loads acting at the hub.

The purpose of the European « SPACE LIGHT » (Whole SPACE combustion for LIGHT duty diesel vehicles) 3-year project launched in 2001 is to research and develop an innovative Homogeneous internal mixture Charged Compression Ignition (HCCI) for passenger cars diesel engine where the combustion process can take place simultaneously in the whole SPACE of the combustion chamber while providing almost no NOx and particulates emissions. This paper presents the whole project with the main R&D tasks necessary to comply with the industrial and technical objectives of the project. The research approach adopted is briefly described. It is then followed by a detailed description of the most recent progress achieved during the tasks recently undertaken. The methodology adopted starts from the research study of the in-cylinder combustion specifications necessary to achieve HCCI combustion from experimental single cylinder engines testing in premixed charged conditions.

Oxygen enriched air (EA) is a well known industrial mixture in which the content of oxygen is higher respect the atmospheric one, in the range 22-35%. Oxygen EA can be obtained by desorption from water, taking advantage of the higher oxygen solubility in water compared to the nitrogen one, since the Henry constants of this two gases are different. The production of EA by this new approach was already studied by experimental runs and theoretical considerations. New results using salt water are reported. EA promoted combustion is considered as one of the most interesting technologies to improve the performance in diesel engines and to simultaneously control and reduce pollution. This paper explores, by means of 3-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations, the effects of EA on the performance and exhaust emissions of a high-speed direct-injection diesel engine.

The sustainability of Martian outposts development is strongly based on the capability of achieving a high level of autonomy both in terms of operations management and of resources availability. In situ production of consumables is a key point to allow humans to work and live on Mars avoiding or limiting the need for re-supplies of materials from Earth. Required consumables can be produced in situ exploiting the locally available resources, but also by means of green-houses and waste recycle systems. Dedicated robotic missions for in situ demonstration of this type of technologies are a fundamental step of the Martian In Situ Resources Utilization (ISRU) development roadmap. This paper is focused on the extraction of oxygen and fuels (e.g. methane) from the Martian atmosphere, and presents a feasibility study for a small technological demonstration plant.

Many studies have been carried out to optimize the aerodynamic performances of a single car or a single vehicle. In present days the traffic increases and sophisticated technologies are developing to guarantee the drivers safety, to minimize the fuel consumption and be more environmentally friendly. Within this research area a new technique that is being studied is Platooning: this means that different vehicles travel in a configuration that minimizes the aerodynamic drag and therefore the fuel consumption and the longitudinal space. In the present study platoons with different vehicles and configurations are taken into account, to analyze the influence of car shape and relative distance between the vehicles. The research has been carried out using CFD techniques to investigate the different flow fields around different platoons, while wind tunnel tests have been used to validate the results of the CFD simulations.

A three dimensional numerical simulation of the ECN “Spray A” is presented. Both primary and secondary breakup of the spray are included. The fuel is n-Dodecane. The n-Dodecane kinetic mechanism is modeled using a skeletal mechanism that consists of 103 species and 370 reactions [9]. The kinetic mechanism is computationally heavy when coupled with three dimensional numerical simulations. Multidimensional chemistry coordinate mapping (CCM) approach is used to speedup the simulation. CCM involves two-way mapping between CFD cells and a discretized multidimensional thermodynamic space, the so called multidimensional chemistry coordinate space. In the text, the cells in the discretized multidimensional thermodynamic space are called zone to discriminate them from the CFD cells. In this way, the CFD cells which are at the similar thermodynamic state are identified and grouped into a unique zone. The stiff ODEs operates only on the zones containing at least one CFD cell.

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems are nowadays widely applied for the reduction of NOx emitted from Diesel engines. The typical process is based on the injection of aqueous urea in the exhaust gases before the SCR catalyst, which determines the production of the ammonia needed for the catalytic reduction of NOx. However, this technology is affected by two main limitations: a) the evaporation of the urea water solution (UWS) requires a sufficiently high temperature of the exhaust gases and b) the formation of solid deposits during the UWS evaporation is a frequent phenomenon which compromise the correct operation of the system. In this context, to overcome these issues, a technology based on the injection of gaseous ammonia has been recently proposed: in this case, ammonia is stored at the solid state in a cartridge containing a Strontium Chloride salt and it is desorbed by means of electrical heating.

In recent years, the increase of gasoline fuel injection pressure is a way to improve thermal efficiency and lower engine-out emissions in GDI homogenous combustion concept. The challenge of controlling particulate formation as well in mass and number concentrations imposed by emissions regulations can be pursued improving the mixture preparation process and avoiding mixture inhomogeneity with ultra-high injection pressure values up to 100 MPa. The increase of the fuel injection pressure in GDI homogeneous systems meets the demand for increased injector static flow, while simultaneously improves the spray atomization and mixing characteristics with consequent better combustion performance. Few studies quantify the effects of high injection pressure on transient gasoline spray evolution. The aim of this work was to simulate with OpenFOAM the spray morphology of a commercial gasoline injected in a constant volume vessel by a prototypal GDI injector.

This work focuses on the analysis of the vertical dynamics of an agricultural tractor, investigating the influence of suspensions' parameters on riding comfort and contact forces. The use of lugged tires coupled with the operation over banked, irregular and deformable tracks, determines significant levels of vertical acceleration over several components of the tractor. These operating conditions have a direct effect on the driver, whose alertness and efficiency are undermined by the exposure to high levels of acceleration for a long time. Secondly, variations of the normal and traction forces provided by the tires affect the quality of tillage and other operations. The paper presents a multi-body vehicle model of a tractor interfaced with a tire-soil contact model allowing to take into account soil's deformation and tread pattern design.

A numerical investigation on a series of Diesel spray experiments in constant-volume vessels is proposed. Non reacting conditions were used to assess the spray models and to determine the grid size required to correctly predict the fuel-air mixture formation process. To this end, not only computed liquid and vapor penetrations were compared with experimental data, but also a detailed comparison between computed and experimental mixture fraction distributions was performed at different distances from the injector. Grid dependency was reduced by introducing an Adaptive Local Mesh Refinement technique (ALMR) with an arbitrary level of refinement. Once the capabilities of the current implemented spray models have been assessed, reacting conditions at different ambient densities and temperatures were considered. A Perfectly Stirred Reactor (PSR) combustion model, based on a direct integration of complex chemistry mechanisms over a homogenous cell, was adopted.

By analyzing the dynamic distortion in all body closure openings in a complete vehicle, a better understanding of the body characteristics can be achieved compared to traditional static load cases such as static torsional body stiffness. This is particularly relevant for non-traditional vehicle layouts and electric vehicle architectures. The body response is measured with the so-called Multi Stethoscope (MSS) when driving a vehicle on a rough pavé road (cobble stone). The MSS is measuring the distortion in each opening in two diagonals. During the virtual development, the distortion is described by the relative displacement in diagonal direction in time domain using a modal transient analysis. The results are shown as Opening Distortion Fingerprint ODF and used as assessment criteria within Solidity and Perceived Quality. By applying the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on the time history of the distortion, a Dominant Distortion Pattern (DDP) can be identified.

A computational, three-dimensional approach to investigate the behavior of diesel soot particles in the micro-channels of wall-flow Diesel Particulate Filters is presented. The KIVA3V CFD code, already extended to solve the 2D conservation equations for porous media materials [1], has been enhanced to solve in 2-D and 3-D the governing equations for reacting and compressible flows through porous media in non axes-symmetric geometries. With respect to previous work [1], a different mathematical approach has been followed in the implementation of the numerical solver for porous media, in order to achieve a faster convergency as source terms were added to the governing equations. The Darcy pressure drop has been included in the Navier-Stokes equations and the energy equation has been extended to account for the thermal exchange between the gas flow and the porous wall.

Premixed combustion modes in compression ignition engines are studied as a promising solution to meet fuel economy and increasingly stringent emissions regulations. Nevertheless, PCCI combustion systems are not yet consolidated enough for practical applications. The high complexity of such combustion systems in terms of both air-fuel charge preparation and combustion process control requires the employment of robust and reliable numerical tools to provide adequate comprehension of the phenomena. Object of this work is the development and validation of suitable models to evaluate the effects of charge premixing levels in diesel combustion. This activity was performed using the Lib-ICE code, which is a set of applications and libraries for IC engine simulations developed using the OpenFOAM® technology.

In the paper several application techniques of MonteCarlo (MC) method applied to thermal analysis of space vehicles are presented. Although these methods are widely used in other engineering domains, their introduction to the thermal one is quite recent and not fully developed in the industrial practice. This paper aims at showing that, even without demanding computation resources (all what presented has been obtained with a single processor PC) MonteCarlo analysis techniques, in a preliminary design phase, can support and integrate engineering judgment of the thermal designer. In particular, it is exploited the applicability of the method to reduced thermal models, with a clear advantage in terms of computation time. An original approach is proposed, and results are shown. The papers shows the applicability of the MC method to the case when experimental data of the uncertain parameters are available, using the bootstrap re-sampling techniques.